Carrie Preston is turning a new page in her career: The True Blood actress is set to play a celebrated author on Royal Pains, TVLine has learned exclusively.

Preston — who last week was robbed of an Emmy nomination for her career-high work on The Good Wife — has signed on to guest star during the USA Network hit’s current fourth season as Jackie Van Ark, a successful romance novelist who brings her college-bound daughter to HankMed to treat her for mysterious symptoms.

The twist? While easygoing Jackie couldn’t seem more different from her high-strung spawn, it turns out they have more in common than they thought.

Preston recently wrapped production on Season 5 of True Blood. Her Royal Pains episode is slated to air on Sept. 5.

After seeing her in many other places now (including The Good Wife of course ! ), I now feel that the True Blood gig really doesn’t do her any justice ! She’s so sidelined all the time ! It’s good that they let her do these other roles on the side !

I thought Carrie Preston was pretty amazing in the Julia Roberts / Clive Owen movie Duplicity, but I could not agree more about her performance in The Good Wife…every single time she shows up. Seriously, she’s stunning. Of every guest performance on every show I saw this season, male/female, comedy/drama, her performance as Elsbeth Tascioni would have been my # 1 pick for an Emmy. (Bob Balaban’s performance on The Good Wife and Ben Feldman’s performance on Mad Men would have been my others.)